Karamo Brown says none of Queer Eye cast identify as queer

The culture expert also spoke on fatherhood in the same interview

2018-04-25

Karamo Brown has said none of the Queer Eye castmates identify as “queer”.

The 37-year-old hunk stars as the culture expert in the Netflix reboot of the popular TV series - alongside Bobby Berk, Atoni Porowski, Tan France and Jonathan Van Ness - and in a recent interview, he revealed that he identifies as a “gay man” rather than “queer”.

While speaking to Marc Malkin on Facebook Live, he said: “I don’t [describe myself as queer]. I describe myself as gay – I come from an old school where gay used to be a negative.

“It’s not negative anymore to me. Through the years, I understand the reclaiming the power with it, but queer is more an umbrella that encompasses so many other people and for me, I identify as a gay man.

“I have a lot of friends who identify as queer. I don’t know if any of the guys on [Queer Eye] identify as gay.

“None of us identify as queer. I don’t know about Jonathan. We never asked if Jonathan identifies as queer.

“I know that me, Bobby and Tan identify as gay men. Atoni identifies as a gay man… I don’t know what Jonathan identifies as. I would assume gay but I don’t know.”

In the same interview, he revealed that his son Jason – who he found out about when he was 25 – could follow in his footsteps and star in Real World: Philadelphia, the show which kickstarted Karamo’s career.

He said: “I thought he was joking… but he showed me the application. He literally applied and sent his application off.

“His mother is the last girl I dated when I was in high school. She got pregnant and moved away and I found out about him when I was 25.